Last month we reported that is was possible Patti LaBelle might join the cast of the Tony-Award winning Broadway show Fela!. Now it's official, the legendary R&B singer and Grammy-winner is in the Fela! cast as of September.  She will take over for Lillias White's role as Fela Kuti’s mother, Funmilayo Kuti.  According to The New York Times:\r
The Grammy winner Patti LaBelle is planning to join the cast at the Eugene O’Neill Theater on Sept. 14 as Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, a spokesman for the show said on Thursday. “After seeing the show, I was struck by the choreography and work of Bill T. Jones, and the passion and joy that overflows from the stage,” Ms. LaBelle said in a news release. Fela Kuti, a musical superstar in his native Nigeria, used his popularity to oppose the repressive military dictatorship there during the 1970s and ’80s. The musical is set in the nightclub where Fela (played alternately by Sahr Ngaujah and Kevin Mambo) regularly performed his pioneering Afrobeat music. \r
This will be Patti's return to Broadway since her 1998 solo concert, Patti La Belle on Broadway.  I've seen Patti LaBelle in concert and interviewed her several times, so the icon definitely has the props for this stellar Broadway show.  Click here to purchase tickets!\r
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